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Does the NRA agree with Wayne LaPierre?

Numerous polls show the vast majority of Americans support requiring background checks for all gun sales, including gun shows. But two polls released this month shed rare light on the views of NRA members on the issue.

Nearly three quarters (74 percent) of NRA members supported requiring a background check system for all gun sales, according to a poll released Monday by Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. The survey found 89 percent of all Americans support the proposal. (The Johns Hopkins program has received financial support, and is named after, New York City mayor and gun control advocate Michael Bloomberg.)

While the poll’s sub-sample of NRA members included only 169 completed interviews and a seven-point margin of sampling error, it corroborates a New York Times/CBS News poll this month that found an 85 percent majority of people in households with an NRA member supporting universal background checks.

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It’s the common talking point from left leaning media and gun control advocates: NRA leaders are out of touch with NRA members and the organization is disagreement over top gun control issues. Turns out, the exact opposite is true. The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action conducted a national scientific poll of NRA members this week and found the vast majority are on the same page regarding a wide range of issues, in particular when it comes to new gun control measures and how to prevent mass shootings. One-thousand members were randomly selected for the poll. The NRA is the only organization with access the membership list.

Key Findings:

92% of NRA members oppose gun confiscation via mandatory buy-back laws.
89% oppose banning semi-automatic firearms, often mistakenly called “assault rifles”.93% oppose a law requiring gun owners to register with the federal government.
92% oppose a new federal law banning the sale of firearms between private citizens.

Methodology – The national survey was conducted by OnMessage Inc. Telephone interviews were conducted January 13-14, 2013. This survey consists of 1,000 NRA members and was stratified by state to reflect voter distribution in the 2012 presidential election. The margin of error for this survey is +/- 3.09%.

“According to the latest available data, those who use guns in violent crimes rarely purchase them directly from licensed dealers; most guns used in crime have been stolen or transferred between individuals after the original purchase.”

NRA doesn’t release its membership rolls, so the only way their survey could tell if someone was a member is if they told the pollster they were. Could people lie about their membership and get away with it? Why, yes, they could!

NRA doesn’t release its membership rolls, so the only way their survey could tell if someone was a member is if they told the pollster they were. Could people lie about their membership and get away with it? Why, yes, they could!

Socratease on January 31, 2013 at 5:30 PM

Or they could of just been members of the National Retriever Association or something.

No, just trying to convince legislators that they don’t have to pay attention to what the NRA tells them. They know they can’t fool gun owners, but it’s easy to fool politicians, especially if they want to be fooled.

I’m sure the way the poll was worded didn’t make respondents think that “requiring a background check system for all gun sales” would necessarily mean that if you were to sell your gun to your brother-in-law you would need to get a background check on him. DiFi wants background checks even for transfers, meaning I couldn’t give my wife a gun for Christmas without her getting a background check.

Don’t you need ID to get background checked? Do the Democrats have a solution for letting these people without ID exercise their constitutional right to keep and bear arms?

If some conservative group challenged background checks because it discriminates against those without ID, what is the left’s argument in favor of disallowing guns for the ID-less? Whatever their argument, it would have to apply to voting, as well. I don’t think they’d get too far with an argument like “voting doesn’t kill people so you shouldn’t be required to have an ID for that, unlike that other constitutional right.”.

I’m a NRA benefactor member and I have a strong disagreement with LaPierre and the rest of the leadership.
They don’t take a hard enough line. In ’93 the rank and file said, “No more compromise”. It’s time they listened.

EVERY NRA member, old and new, I’ve talked to says they don’t like the background checks we already endure. They feel it is nothing more than “feel good theater” like so many things (TSA!) the government puts into play.